Black Cloak: Difference between revisions

[[File:KingdomHeartsNobody.jpg|link=Kingdom Hearts|frame|Would you like some candy?]]

 

 

 

A [[In the Hood|hood]] that conceals the face is often a required matching accessory.

Can overlap with [[Ominous Opera Cape]].

 

{{examples}}

 

* Used in ''[[Claymore]]'' whenever the characters need to go undercover.

* The protagonist's disguise in ''[[Code Geass]]'' involves a helmet that completely hides the face and a black cloak. <s>Though it remains a mystery if he really is a good person, or is just wanting power for himself.</s> {{spoiler|As of the series finale, he is officially a good guy - one might even call him "Christlike..." For obvious reasons.}}

* Guts is known as the Black Swordsman because of his cloak in the early volumes of [[Berserk]].

 

* The Hooded One in ''[[Bone]]''.

* [[Mickey Mouse]]'s longtime foe the Phantom Blot

 

 

** Although the [[Expanded Universe|comics and novels]] that take place afterward state that he stained himself with the Dark Side quite a bit by then, they were primarily written after the fact and may be considered a [[Retcon]].

*** A straight ''[[Star Wars]]'' example, though, is The Emperor/Senator Palpatine/Darth Sidious, who shows up this way in the original trilogy, the prequels, and the [[Animated Adaptation]], ''[[Star Wars: Clone Wars]]''. Anakin, his protege, originally omits the cloak from his personalized leather Jedi attire, but as he gets darker, he starts donning it as well. He upgrades to the signature black cape and [[Vader Breath|life-support system]] of Darth Vader after losing to Obi-Wan.

* In the film version of ''[[Angels in America]]'', Prior wears a sort of modernized cloak (almost a hoodie, but not quite) in each scene after he takes the book (except {{spoiler|the one post-[[Time Skip]]}}.) It's quite an attention-grabber when compared to the normal people he walks past. (The play creates a similar effect with a black coat and a scarf that's draped like a hood.)

 

* The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come from ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'' by [[Charles Dickens]], published in 1843, is a rare example of a good (though still scary) guy being a Black Cloak.

* The Ringwraiths in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''.

** Lampshaded in "[[Love at First Bite]]."

*** Dracula doesn't wear a black cloak in the book. The cloak originated in the 1924 Hamilton-Deane play and was made famous by (of course) [[Bela Lugosi]].

** The Auditors physically manifest as gray hooded robes... with nothing inside them.

* Averted in ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' in a town next to [[Mordor]], where clothing that conceals your face in any way is against the law, because the servants of The Dark One could use them to pass as human.

** Not before there were loads of [[Eyeless Face|Myrddraal]] whose cloaks don't even stir however strong is the wind.

* ''[[The Riftwar Cycle]]'' comes at this trope from both sides. To the Kingdom of Isles, the black-robed Tsurani magicians were the most horrible monsters, maintaining the portals that made the war possible and occasionally bringing their unheard-of power directly to the battlefield with terrifying results. On the other side, the magicians were hardly evil and considered themselves loyal citizens, selflessly serving their empire (which itself isn't [[The Empire]] after all). And the black robes weren't meant to be ominous - it's just their uniform.

* Cowl and Kumori in ''[[The Dresden Files]]''. Harry ''loves'' making fun of them for their fashion sense. For instance:

''Bring it, Darth Bathrobe!'' }}

** Despite that, it does mask their identities, which is probably the point. They can magically deflect attention if they have to, and aren't constrained by the Laws of Magic.

* ''[[Mistborn]]'' 's Steel Inquisitors wear them as their official uniform within the [[Corrupt Church]]'s hierarchy. Unusually, they normally keep their hoods down, so their victims can see their faces- particularly, the giant [[Spikes of Villainy]] pounded ''through their eyes''.

* Richard of the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series acquires one of these. Slightly subverted as it's magic camouflage.

 

* Typical villains in various ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' and ''[[Angel]]'' episodes.

* The Ghouls from ''[[Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue]]''.

** The Headless Monks in "A Good Man Goes To War''.

* His Divine Shadow in ''[[Lexx]]''.

 

== [[Music]] ==

* The members of the band ''[[Sunn O)))|Sunn O]]'' wear black robes.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* The Archangel Dominic from ''[[In Nomine]]'' is well known for wearing a black cloak that conceals all and even blocks perceptive supernatural powers directed at him. Whether he's a [[Knight Templar]], a genuine good guy with a really hard job (he's the Archangel of Judgment, responsible for keeping the angelic host free of corruption) or secretly outright evil is [[Alternate Character Interpretation|up to the individual GM]].

* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' is chock full of these. [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=190575 Warlocks] and [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=136205 wraiths] are no strangers to dramatic cowls, and ''Magic'''s [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=183418 specters] are literally nothing but black cloaks.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** Your character, Ezio, if you dye his clothes black in one of the shops. Altair's Armor is also a black coat of sorts.

* An eerie, fiery-eyed, taloned entity in tattered black robes abducts a little girl from her home in the hidden object/puzzle game ''Nightmare Realm''.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* A long, black, face-conceling cloak is worn by one of the ''protagonists'' of ''[[Negative One]]'', Adele, to hide the fact that she is not human.

* Used and justified in ''[[Girl Genius]]''. The protagonists use this disguise against guards on the lookout for Agatha. The guards recognize it as suspicious immediately, and arrest them. Too bad the hero's expected it, and had dressed up Zeetha in the cloack instead, just to check if Agatha could sneak in with such a disguise.

* Minister Malack, a lizardfolk cleric of Nergal in ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' wears one. Given the presence of [[Star Wars]] references in the arc in which he features, his outfit might be a [[Shout-Out]] to the typical Sith-wear.

* ''[[Beyond the Canopy]]'': [[Big Bad|The Baron]] wears one, as does his right-hand man, Shambles.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* The [[Super Villain|supervillainess]] Hekate's 'Master', so horrific that even she is scared of him, in the [[Whateley Universe]] stories.

** Jinn when going around on Campus as Shroud has one (and being a autonomous telekinetic construct possesing Objects she also technicaly IS the Cloak)

* Members of the league of evil villains opposed to [[The League of STEAM]] all wear these.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* A skeleton from ''[[Adventure Time]]'' wears a black cloak.

* On ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'', worn by the mysterious [[Everything's Better with Chickens|Hooded Chicken]].

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* [[Truth in Television]] for the full habit of most Catholic priests, especially those in the religious orders of the Benedictines, the Redemptorists, and the Congregation of Holy Cross (to name a few).

* Ivan the Terrible's secret police, the Oprichniki, were easily recognizable for wearing black, hooded, monk's robes.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Obviously Evil]]

[[Category:Dramatic Dangling]]

[[Category:Costume Tropes]]

[[Category:Villains]]